A Hilton is a Hilton is a Hilton. Well, not exactly, but having a Hilton Hotel in Durban means a foreign visitor not familiar with the city can expect a certain level of service.

In fact, says the hotel's general manager, Gerhard Patzer, the original designers of the Hilton hotel, next to the International Convention Centre in Durban, thought of installing a water treatment plant.

"They thought it would be necessary in Africa. They didn't realise the levels of infrastructure in Durban," says Patzer, a man who boasts 18 years in the hospitality industry in this city alone. Before his arrival in Durban, Patzer worked in the Middle East.

He has just spent R3 million upgrading the Hilton's business centre, a facility regarded as vital in the positioning of the 327 bed hotel.

Patzer says the Hilton and the ICC feed off eachother, with many ICC conference delegates more likely to travel to unknown Durban because there is a Hilton nearby.

Patzer says the Hilton, built at a cost of R250 million in 1997, will have had an occupancy rate of 67% this year.

Patzer joined the Hilton in 1999, prior to that its occupancy was 34% and the business was in dire straits. It was sold by its Malaysian owners to the UK based Hilton Group, the company that owns the rights to the Hilton brand name. Since 1999 it has made an operational profit.

The recent upgrade in Durban, says Patzer, was in line with international standards set down by the Hilton. It has meant the installation of new high speed computers and a business centre manned until 10pm. Guests from bigger cities across the world can also get copies of their home newspaper downloaded via the internet and printed at the Hilton in Durban.

The conference rooms at the hotel have been re-configured to accommodate meetings of between eight and 250 people.

Breakaway rooms and a fancy new boardroom have also been built, complete with card keys that give guests access to their meeting rooms, minibars and a safe.

Patzer says standards at the 250 Hilton hotels around the world are maintained by inspectors who visit the establishments incognito and report to head office on the levels of service.

An interesting feature of the Hilton upgrade in Durban is the use of fabric tension structures, imported from Germany, in the construction of awnings on the second and third floor terraces.

Durban company Flexible Structures pioneered the use of fabric tensioned by steel cables in South Africa. The company has installed 600m2 of awnings in a design that echoes the seascape of the ICC's massive awnings. Flexible Structures gets its fabric from Germany because it comes with a 10 year warranty.

The material is PVDF, lacquered on both sides with protection against microbial and fungal attack. It is also UV protected and is immune to destruction from cigarette stompies flicked out of the windows above it.

The company has erected awnings at Wilson's Wharf, Hartley Vale Stadium in the Cape and a stadium in Atlanta, USA, for the 1996 Olympic Games. - The Mercury